Partners
by A11ison
Summary: Anna is a homicide detective for the Arendelle Police Department. Elsa is the detective that no one wants to work with; she's rude and unsocial and doesn't like to make friends. When the two are assigned to work together, Anna desperately tries to connect with her new partner, and unlike everyone else, she succeeds.
1. Chapter 1

Anna stared down at the lifeless body sprawled out on the ground just a few feet away from her. Even though she it was her third year working homicide, there was something strange about this murder that made her really, really, uncomfortable. It may have been the way the dead girl's eyes were open, just staring out at nothing; or maybe it was the smell of decay… both were equally disgusting.

_Must've been hell. _She thought to herself. _The struggling, the screaming, just knowing that she was going to die and there was no one there to help her. _Sometimes she hated working homicide. Even her mother hated her working the field, often ending their conversations about it with, "you're too sensitive for that blood and gore. Quit, work with your brother at the ice company, Anna… blah, blah, blah."

"Excuse me," a visibly annoyed voice muttered behind her, "there's a crime scene that we're supposed to be examining the area around the body, not just staring at the body."

Anna turned around, perhaps a little too quickly, nearly knocking her head into the person behind her. "Oh… um, yeah, I mean, that's what I was doing…" she trailed off after making eye contact with a woman slightly taller than her.

_Strange, _she thought. She had never seen this woman before in her life, yet she wore a similar badge, one that the department had obviously given her. Yeah, there was no way in hell that she had seen this woman before. She was _way_ too striking to go unnoticed at the precinct. She had the bluest eyes that she had ever seen, and her hair was an amazing platinum blonde color that looked surprisingly natural.

"Who are you, by the way?" Anna finally asked the mysterious woman.

The woman cocked her head and blinked, shocked by Anna's frankness. "You don't remember…?" Anna shook her head. "I'm your partner," the blonde filled in, "we met this morning."

_Already met? _No way. Anna would've remembered her, for sure. "This morning, right… and you _are_?"

"Detective Snow. Elsa Snow, if you wanna get acquainted, which I _don't_. I like to talk as least as possible, just so you know, and if we do it's strictly about the case." The blonde woman gave a slight smile that quickly faded after she was finished speaking.

Anna blinked. _Detective Snow? _She was sure that she'd heard that name before… she just wasn't sure where. _She wasn't the detective that accidently shot someone last year, was she? _Nope, that was that small guy that had the obsession with summer and hugging everyone that walked by him… poor guy wasn't the same after that.

Oh wait… she knew who she was. Detective Snow was the one that Detective Frost used to work with. Everyone always said that those two would've been a good match together, but Anna wasn't so sure about that. Jack Frost was more of a social person. Elsa Snow, on the other hand, didn't speak to _anybody ever. _After Jack confirmed to everyone that he was moving back to Alaska to be with his sick sister, they had thrown him a party where he told everyone about how his partner, Elsa, was so quiet he thought she was mute for the first whole week he worked with her. He must've forgotten to mention that she was a bit of a bitch.

"Do you have a hard time paying attention, or something?" Elsa asked, impatiently waiting for a response from the redhead across from her.

"No, no, no, no," Anna answered quickly, waving her hands around frantically.

Elsa gave a slight nod. "So then I'm guessing you heard the uniforms tell us that we have a lead. The victim was seen at a club last night; The Southern Isles, you know, the place that the Arnesen family owns."

"The people that have thirteen kids?" Anna furrowed a brow. She knew the Arnesen family, all right. The youngest brother, Hans, was always after in in high school; he didn't even have a clue that she was about as straight as a circle.

"Yeah," Elsa snorted, walking away from the scene to her car, "damn people breed like rabbits."

Anna giggled and followed close behind her partner. "So we're taking your car?"

The blonde turned and narrowed her eyes at the bubbly girl in front of her. "Must you always point out the obvious?"

"It's what I do best," Anna jested with a smile.

Elsa hummed a small laugh and unlocked the door to her Camry. "That's great, I just love people like you."

Anna could feel her face turn red. _She loves people like me? What does that mean? Oh wait, it was just sarcasm. Yeah, no doubt sarcasm. _

"So, Elsa," she began, "how long have you worked homicide?"

"Hey, what did I say back there? I don't like getting acquainted, and I don't _want _to get acquainted; why don't people get that?"

Anna shrugged. "Well, you're really pretty, and you _look _approachable, maybe that's why." Uh-oh. She _didn't _just call her partner really pretty…

The two women exchanged looks.

"That's not a valid reason," Elsa hissed.

"If you don't want to talk to anyone, can you at least tell me why?"

Elsa shook her head and sighed. "No, I can't."

Anna groaned. Of course she couldn't tell. "I can respect that then," she glanced out the window of Elsa's Camry, "I've been in homicide for three years now. Yeah, I've seen some pretty intense stuff. Ever hear of the-"

"No, and I don't want to," the blonde cut in. "How about we just enjoy the car ride, hmm?"

Anna looked down and frowned. "Okay, fine."

After a long, boring ten minutes of staring out the window, Anna pulled out her phone and started up a game of _2048_ the exact moment that Elsa slammed on the brakes, sending her phone flying into the dash.

"What the hell?" she asked, pointing down at the floor where her iPhone sat face down. "It's new!"

Elsa looked over at her and raised an eyebrow. "Is that something that I should care about?" she asked, cutting off the engine.

Anna picked up her phone and glared. "You know, maybe try showing a little kindheartedness towards others, it can bring you a long way. Why did you stop, anyway? We aren't even there yet."

"Short cut," the blonde replied, with a small nod. "Get your badge ready, we're questioning everybody until we get an official answer for Hans' whereabouts."

Before Anna could even reply, Elsa had already made her way out of the car and was halfway to the club. She couldn't help but feel like the platinum blonde woman had some secrets… not good ones either. She was rude, and oddly unsocial; what could make a person act like that? Whatever is was, Anna would have to find out about it later. She had better things to do than worry about her snappy partner.


	2. Chapter 2

Anna pushed open the door to the club, surprised to see how empty it was. She knew that people didn't go to clubs to party in the daytime, but since The Southern Isles was the only nightclub that served alcohol that didn't taste like complete piss, she expected at least a couple of people to be in there drinking away their sorrows before all the college kids came in to rave.

"You take the lead," Detective Snow ordered, "I'm not good at this questioning stuff. Just ask the bartender where Hans is so we can get out of here."

Anna paused. That was the second time that Elsa had mentioned Hans. Nobody even mentioned Hans back at the scene, so where did she get the idea of him even being there?

"I can't ask him that," the redhead rebuffed, "there's no proof that Hans was even at the crime scene."

Elsa pinched the bridge of her nose. "Look, I know there's no proof, but he's been in trouble for this sort of thing before. Four years ago, before you joined homicide, he was nearly convicted of murder but was let off because of lack of evidence. The weapon used in that murder was a baseball bat. This new victim was bludgeoned to death and was last seen at this bar, owned by Hans' family. Coincidence, I think not."

Anna shrugged. She had a point that was for sure, but still, no proof. She pulled out her badge and approached the bar, where the bartender was busy drying off a glass.

"Excuse me, sir," she acknowledged, holding her badge up, "I'm Detective Bjornstad, and this is Detective Snow, we're here-"

The bartender sighed and set his glass down. "I already told the chief that the girl told me she was twenty-one, I didn't know she was fifteen. I mean, come on, you've seen the way these teenagers are dressing nowadays, right?"

Anna blinked at the man in front of her. "As fucked up as that is, I'm surprised this place is still even running. Anyway, we aren't here for that… we're here because a girl was murdered last night, and the last place she was seen was in this club."

"Oh shit," the bartender whispered. "Well, I'd be happy to help, Detective's. I'm Aksel Arnesen, I work the bar Thursdays, Friday's and Saturday's. My twin brother, Abel, is a bouncer, he's here in the back if you wanna talk to him."

"That would be great, but we'll start with what you have to say first."

"All right," Aksel agreed.

Anna flipped open her notebook. "The victim was a brunette by the name of Belle Faucheux, twenty-three-years-old, five foot seven. Now, I've got a picture if you-"

The bartender held up his hand. "No need, Detective, I know, er, knew her. She came in here alone last night after work and left with my little brother. That's all I know."

"Which brother?" she asked.

"Hans."

Anna set her notebook down and glanced over at Elsa, but abstained from saying 'you were right' in front of the elder Arnesen brother.

She wrote Hans' name down in the book, and turned her attention back to the bartender. "Can you tell us where he might be at the moment?"

Aksel nodded. "He's at work."

"Where does he work?" Anna asked impatiently.

Aksel pulled out his wallet and handed over a laminated card.

"Mother Gothel's Daycare? What does he do there?"

"Be damned if I know," the bartender said with a shrug. "If you ask me, the fact that he's twenty-five and working around children, is really fucking creepy. Out of all the brothers, he was always the strangest and the most secretive."

Anna closed her notebook and put it back into her pocket. "All right, that's all we needed. Thank you for your help, Aksel, we'll be back if we need any more information."

"Yeah, I'm always happy to help out. I love cops," he said, giving Anna a wink.

Anna gave the bartender a quick smile after getting off her barstool. When she was halfway to the exit, she turned to face her partner. "Hans works at the same daycare that Faucheux worked at."

"I caught that, too. We should get down there and question the other people that work there," Elsa suggested, puffing on a freshly lit cigarette.

Anna wrinkled her nose. She hated the smell of a burning cigarette, but she hated how such an attractive woman like Elsa could stand to even smoke them even more.

"You think Hans will be there?" she asked, waving a small cloud of smoke out of her face.

"It's ten in the morning, daycare gets out at four, so probably. The only reason he wouldn't be there is because he's guilty and he's trying to make a run for it." Elsa tossed her cigarette and opened the car door, sliding into the driver's seat.

"Do you really think he killed her?"

Elsa huffed. "You're kidding, right?" she asked brashly, as if Anna was deaf. "He's been accused of a crime similar to this one before and was _almost _charged for it. I'm telling you, someone either tampered with the evidence or the people that work at the station don't know what they're doing."

Anna shook her head at the thought of an officer tampering with evidence. "I don't think so, pal, if-"

"Hey," the blonde interjected, "I told you _twice, _we are _not _pals, buddies, friends, BFFs, or anything like that. We strictly talk work and nothing more," she informed frostily.

"I didn't mean in a friendly kind've way; I was just gonna say that there is no way an officer would tamper with evidence."

Elsa let out a riled breath. "This is Arendelle, Detective Bjornstad. It's a small town… you never what could happen behind closed doors."

The redheaded detective shook her head. _That girl's got her head screwed on too tight. _

After a long, quiet car ride across town, they had finally made it. Apparently, Mother Gothel's Daycare was, no doubt, one of the most depressing places for a child to go. It was secluded, and the children were rarely allowed to go outdoors, unless Mother Gothel herself felt like going into town and one of the other caretakers let them go out for a few minutes. That's what she heard from her brother, anyway.

Anna pulled her badge out and glanced over at her blonde partner. "I do the talking?"

"You do the talking," Elsa confirmed.

Anna opened the door the daycare, and looked around for a caretaker.

"Can I help you?" a tall woman with long black hair asked.

"Um, no… I mean, yes. I'm Detective Bjornstad, and this is Detective Snow. If you don't mind, we'd like to ask you a few questions about a few of your employees."

The dark hair woman cocked a brow. "Belle, I assume. I heard about the poor girl this morning. It's a shame, really, she was one of my best workers; I don't know what I'll do without her help."

Anna flipped open her notebook. "That's correct, ma'am."

"Oh, please," the woman breathed, "call me Ms. Gothel; ma'am makes me feel old. That's why I started a daycare; the children make me feel… surprisingly young."

"Right," Anna nodded. "Last night, Ms. Faucheux was last seen leaving a nightclub with another one of your employees, Hans Arnesen. Tell me, did the two ever interact in a… contrary manner?"

Ms. Gothel shrugged her shoulders. "Not that I could tell. You could ask him yourself, Detective, he's in the other room reading to the children."

The redheaded detective shared a glance with her partner. "That would be great."


End file.
